


Hanzo's Sword

by Dolevalan



Category: Kill Bill (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-14
Updated: 2007-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:56:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1630214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dolevalan/pseuds/Dolevalan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set pre-movies.  Beatrix Kiddo wonders about Bill's last trip to Japan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hanzo's Sword

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to Mousling1 for her invaluable beta assistance. And thanks to my recipient for stretching me outside my comfort zone a bit. I hope you enjoyed the results.
> 
> Written for Runcible

 

 

"What _did_ you do, Bill?" Kiddo said with a laugh, carelessly yet precisely slicing a tomato. "Must have been something awful, with the reaction you got." He just raised his eyebrows in that way he did. "Oh, come on."

"Kiddo, I am, and always have been, a man of mystery." He handed her an onion. She accepted it, rolling her eyes a bit. "It is part of what makes me so irresistible to deadly women, such as yourself. Besides, I can't say that you have been a shining pillar of honesty yourself, you know."

She laughed again, easily, dumping the chopped vegetables into the soup pot. "Anything I didn't tell you, you found out on your own, I'm sure."

"True. But that is not the point I was attempting to make."

"No, you were attempting to distract me from asking why you're not going back to Japan any time soon."

"Well," he said slowly, as he gathered the flatware, "for one, with O-Ren there, I don't need to go very often. She is, you know, a very capable young woman."

Kiddo hauled the pot over to boil. "I'll take your word for it."

"Yes, you will. For now, at least." She watched Bill set the table, with the same careful precision with which he did everything.

"And for two?"

She padded over in bare feet. With her soft blue loungewear, hair back in a high ponytail, Kiddo hardly looked like one of the most dangerous people on the face of the earth. But she could tell that Bill never forgot it. He looked at her differently, after she'd come back from China. Not with a pride that came from ownership, like most men might have felt in his situation. But a pride of... accomplishment. As if she were a symphony he had written.

Now, however, he looked up at her with the quirk of a smile that said how very much he enjoyed withholding information. Smug, that was it. He said, "That, my dear Kiddo, is between Hattori Hanzo and myself."

"You cause one of the greatest sword-makers the world has ever seen to retire, and no one's allowed to know why?"

"Well, I can't speak for him, I suppose. You could always go ask Hanzo."

She laughed, and they kissed, and they went back to making dinner. But she did not forget.

\--

Kiddo did not, in fact, ask Hattori Hanzo what had happened. By the time she met him, she didn't need to. But she did ask Budd, much as she disliked him. They were seldom together, and even less seldom without Bill, so it was months after the brothers' trip to Japan before she had the moment.

The three of them had gone to the airport, to retrieve Elle Driver, Pei Mei's latest pupil and Bill's newest acquisition. Elle had refused to say exactly what happened, only that it had gone badly and she was returning early. Bill smiled and said perhaps she wasn't suited for Kung Fu. Budd laughed, but Kiddo knew how angry Bill was. Calm, but all the more angry for that.

He had asked Budd and Kiddo to wait in the car. Normally, Kiddo would have protested, but now, instead, it was an opportunity.

Budd leaned back stretching his legs under the driver's seat. "Never saw what all the fuss was about with that little man anyway."

Not really wanting to get into a discussion of the relative merits of Pei Mai, Kiddo said, "But Hanzo - no one overrates him."

"Overrated," Budd said from under his down-tilted cowboy hat. "He's not working anymore, is he?" It wasn't really a question. "And he serves fish bait in his restaurant."

"Bill gave you a Hanzo sword, didn't he?" Budd made an affirmative grunt. "So? Is it as amazing as everyone says?"

"Hell, you're the swordswoman, not me. It's a pretty thing. I can show you it, if you want sometime."

"If it would be alright," she said with the little, girlish smile that no one was ever quite sure if she affected or not.

"Sure, darlin', whenever."

Silence fell for a few moments. Kiddo fiddled with the dormant radio, idly. Budd commented, after a long silence, "That girl is trouble. Got a mean streak."

Kiddo laughed. "You don't expect that, with what we do?"

"Not like this. You watch her."

"Mm." She flicked the button to the off position. A long pause, then: "Bill was shook up about it, whatever happened."

"What, with Hanzo?"

She'd meant with Elle, but took the opening. "He never said as much, but..."

"Well, he would be. With half the goddamn city breathing down our backs as we left, and with what..." Budd stopped and chuckled. "He ain't told ya, has he?"

"Not exactly, but - "

"Then it ain't my place. `sides, he and Hanzo," every time he said it, he flattened the first syllable in a way that almost made her flinch, "used to be great pals. Might make it up yet. Stranger things."

"From what I heard," Kiddo said, voice low, "it wasn't the sort of thing that gets made up."

"No," he said, "You heard rightly. But never... holy mother of God, look at that." He sat up, tilting his hat back from his face. Kiddo turned, and saw Bill coming towards the car, Elle slightly behind him to his left. Kiddo had wondered if she would be able to see the change in Elle, the way Bill had so clearly seen the change in her.

She wondered no longer, looking steadily at the inky eyepatch slung across Elle's face like a badge of honor. They were silent, on the drive home.

\--

O-ren Ishii was visiting from Japan, about a year after Bill had returned. Kiddo sought O-ren's company relatively often. The women weren't close, but she was better company than Budd, who thought a big night was two pornos instead of one, or Elle, who looked at Bill too long and too frequently to loose any love on Kiddo. And Vernita was too often out at clubs to be much company for anyone.

So Kiddo and O-ren, and sometimes Bill, would spar, or sit and quietly have some wine. They weren't friends. Neither woman had any friends. But the respect between them was, perhaps, just slightly higher than average among the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.

Bill was not there the time Kiddo asked, "Have you ever met Hattori Hanzo?" She asked in Japanese; it seemed right for the conversation. It was respectful, and besides, Kiddo had precious few opportunities to practice. Bill had spoken it very seldom, lately.

O-ren raised one delicate eyebrow. "No. I've never met Hanzo-sensei." There was a short silence before she added, "Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering if you knew what happened. Between him and Bill."

O-ren was silent long enough that Kiddo began to suspect she wouldn't answer at all. When she did speak it was in English, very slowly. "I do not know for certain. But I have heard enough about Hanzo-sensei to know this much. He was and is the greatest artist of our time. His name speaks for itself. The swords are... were... his life's work. The use of them just as much as the making.

"I further know that Bill was his pupil. And that he had Hanzo-sensei make a sword for his brother. I have met his brother, and I can imagine that, in a different man, seeing a work of art in Budd's hands would be enough." She took a sip of red wine. "However. Hanzo blades have made their way into such hands before. That would not have been enough of a reason for both the end of a friendship and the end of a brilliant career."

O-ren fell silent again. Kiddo did not interrupt, and her patience was rewarded when O-ren ultimately resumed. "What I do know is that there is a rumor, on the streets of Tokyo. A rumor that Hanzo-sensei once had a brother. And that Hanzo-sensei has a brother no longer. The details vary, and are never clear. But I have heard the rumor enough that I believe it, at least in the main."

The silence settled again, like a blanket of snow. Kiddo swirled the wine in her glass, no stray drop spilling out. "Did Bill do it?"

"Whether or not with his own hands, I do not know. But he surely had it done, if not. After all, it is what we do."

"I thought Hanzo was his friend."

O-ren laughed, quietly, but for just a moment, Kiddo glimpsed a side of her that was no saner than Elle. "He is Bill's friend, as much as anyone. But don't tell me that you, of all people, don't know what Bill is capable of."

Kiddo didn't answer. Eventually, O-ren finished her wine, stood, bowed slightly, and left. Bill found Kiddo later, still sitting thoughtfully on the couch with an empty wine glass in her hand. He leaned in the doorway, watching her.

Finally, he spoke. "Long day, Kiddo?"

"No," she turned with that same girlish smile. "A day off. But I've had a lot of those lately. You?"

He gave her a long, piercing look, as if he could see into the room's past, eavesdrop on the conversation that was already done. Finally, he said, "Getting you an assignment, Kiddo. You ready for the next one? I could give it to Elle, but..."

"No," she still smiled, "I want to go. What is it?"

"I think it's one you'll like, if I know you. And I flatter myself that I do."

"Of course, Bill. Of course you do."

 

 

 


End file.
